IAFS 1000

Conflict andConflict Resolution:

Rwanda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCKbVS4vvGc

Rwandan Genocide (1994)

• 800,000 Tutsi and

moderate Hutu

murdered by

Hutu extremists

• 3 million refugees

http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_rwanda.html

http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_namibia.html

GermanSouth WestAfrica(Namibia)

Herero Genocide (1904-07)

• German South West Africa (now Namibia)

• 1904-1907

– Herero uprising

– German response

1948 Convention on Prevention & Punishment of Genocide

GGenocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Impact of Herero Genocide

• Herero population:

– 1905: 80,000

– 1911: 15,000

Pre-Colonial Rwanda

• Tutsi king Rwabugiri (1860 - 1895)

— favored Tutsi

— helped create “ethnic” differences

Colonial Rwanda(German)

• 1890: German control—indirect rule through King Musinga—1914:

◦ 5 German civil servants◦ 96 Germans total

—“Racial” differences betweenTutsi, Hutu, & Twa

—Tutsis as “near-Caucasians”

Colonial Rwanda(Belgian

with French influence)• 1916: Belgian control

• 1919: League of Nations mandate

• French influence

• 1920s: increased state control—formalized ubuhake contracts

Colonial Rwanda (Belgian

with French influence)

• 1933: identity cards

• Influence of Catholic church

• Results:– freezing of Rwandan society– increased ethnic divisions

Decolonization

• 1959-61: Hutu revolution

• 1962: independence

—Hutu-led government

—Tutsi refugees

Independent Rwanda

• Strong center

• Ideas of ethnic difference

• Culture of fear

• Late 1980s:economic downturn

www.cbm.org.uk/rwanda.htm

Independent Rwanda• 1990: civil war

• Oct 1993: Hutu presidentof Burundi assassinatedby Tutsi soldiers

— communal violence— Rwandan peace talks— UN peacekeepers

www.cbm.org.uk/rwanda.htm

Independent Rwanda

• Media incitement of violence

• 6 Apr 1994:crash of place carryingPres. Habyarimana[pron. HA-bya-ray-MA-na]

www.cbm.org.uk/rwanda.htm

The Genocide• President Habyarimana (Hutu) shot

down 6 Apr 1994• Waves of killing:

– Opposition politicians, including Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana

– Dissenting Hutus– Tutsi

• Late June: French unilateral intervention